Summer 5:2 Dieting – Fast Day Stuffed Courgettes with Turkey

When I started doing the 5:2 diet and recording the 5:2 diet recipes I made, I thought winter would be harder than summer. Cold weather would tempt me to cook and eat more. And of course Christmas. And, lots of high calorie root vegetables and a lack of seasonal salad ingredients. Now, maybe it’s just me being perverse, but the reality is that I’ve struggled much more through the first few months of summer. When I am out, I crave cooling fizzy drinks, icecream and fresh juices, all of which can be quite bad calorie traps. Or even white wine spritzers which I drink far too quickly forgetting that each one has a full measure of wine. And, I generally don’t feel like cooking. So I graze on delicious cured meats and creamy summer cheeses. And then there are holidays (when I take a holiday from dieting too). All in, it really hasn’t worked out quite as I imagined.

Of course I SHOULD manage better. Courgettes, or Zucchini, are great low calorie vegetables which are firm textured enough to cook well. One medium courgette has about 20 calories. I’m trying my best again to grow them – but, so far I have buds and nearly flowers but nothing even approaching a courgette. Ah well, if I can’t get to the stage where I’m cooking with my own home grown courgettes, I might manage the odd stuffed courgette flower…

Anyway. I had some cooked turkey breast to use up (in the freezer since Christmas and in need of eating before NEXT Christmas). And courgettes should be in season, even though my own are no where near ready, they are cheap to buy at the moment. Hence my 5:2 diet fast day stuffed courgettes.

As this recipe is actually one to make use of a cheap seasonal vegetable for this time of year AND some leftovers, it’s really very frugal. It also works out quite low in calories – I found that one courgette with filling was a good portion size, and that works out at less than 200 calories. And any left over filling works well as a pasta sauce too (though perhaps not for a 5:2 diet fast day). If you had any kind of leftover mince, quinoa or even breadcrumbs and a little more cheese, I think it would be easy enough to substitute out the turkey and still have a tasty and substantial dish.

Directions

Gently soften the onion in the olive oil for about 8 minutes or till the edges start to brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, then add the courgette

Step 5

Finally add in the tomato and tomato puree and the chopped or minced turkey together with a cup of water or white wine - reduce the mixture down to a thick sauce

Step 6

Fill the courgette shells with the stuffing and top with grated parmesan.

Step 7

Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes till the courgette shells are cooked and the parmesan golden brown

I’m sending this to Fishfingers for Tea – the host of this month’s Credit Crunch Munch challenge, hosted by Camilla from FabFood4All and Helen from FussFreeFlavours. And I’m going to try harder to avoid summery temptation and stick with the 5:2 diet. Which should be easy when there are great seasonal, low calorie ingredients around.

This looks great and I love courgettes and it’s nice to find another recipe other than ratatouille when we have a glut of them and I prefer to use turkey rather than beef so this suits me and it looks quick to prepare which is a bonus

Hi Fiona, a little late now as your courgette plant is probably producing fruit now, but for future reference you might be interested to hear what I was told, that the male flowers always come first, the female flowers which produce the fruit don’t appear until later, usually when it’s warmer, and conditions are prefect for pollination.

Sorry, last one sent early in error! Visited this site as my sister does the fasting, and recommended this recipe to use up courgettes, she loves it so I’m trying it for tea tonight! Excuse spelling mistake, prefect instead of perfect! Lol

Wauv this is a great recipe, really delicious. I was wondering if I could include it in the danish “5:2 diet starter e-book” I am making for the Danish 5:2 community? Of cause with full credits to your great site?
Kind regards
Philip

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